The purpose of the Florida Native Plant Society (FNPS) is to promote the preservation, conservation, and restoration of the native plants and native plant communities of Florida. This blog presents ideas and information to further the cause of Florida's native plants and ecosystems.

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

Wednesday's Wildflower: Skyblue Lupine

Lupinus cumulicola

Text and photo by
Roger L. Hammer

From January to May
each year the white sand scrub on the Lake Wales Ridge in Lake, Osceola, Polk,
and Highlands Counties are adorned with the cheery blue flowers of the Florida
endemic skyblue lupine (pronounced LOO-PIN).

Some botanists consider it a synonym
of Lupinus diffusus , but others argue that L. diffuses differs
by its habitat, range, prostrate to decumbent stems, orbicular-reniform
(kidney-shaped) standard, and a nearly straight beak on the pods.

The stems
of Lupinus cumulicola are usually erect with gray-green, silky
pubescent, elliptic leaves that average 2”–3” long and about 1” wide. The pods
have a curved beak.

Lupinus is
taken from lupus, or “wolf,” and alludes to the curious belief
that these plants consumed soil fertility, when, in fact, they improve the soil
with nitrogen-fixing bacteria. The species name cumulicola means
“dweller on a heap or mound,” in this case, sand. It comes from the same root
word for cumulus clouds that form billowing mounds in the sky. The seeds of
some species were used in ancient Greece as a hallucinogen to psychoactively
prepare people to commune with the dead.

The plant photographed was growing on a hill of white sand right alongside US27
in Polk County in mid-January 2015. When in flower, it’s hard to miss. Bees are
the principal pollinator.

Roger is a member of the
FNPS Dade Chapter and is currently working on a new Falcon Guide titled Complete
Guide to Florida Wildflowers, due to be released in Spring 2018. His
other wildflower guides include Florida Keys Wildflowers (2004), Everglades
Wildflowers (2nd edition,
2014), and Central Florida Wildflowers (2016).